Motorsport in Argentina predates the World Championship by two decades. A sportscar event was first held on the Costanera circuit in 1930 and continued until 1940, before switching to the Retiro circuit. After a six-year wartime break, racing resumed in 1947 with the South American "Temporada" Grand Prix series running under Formula Libre regulations. Italian Luigi Villoresi won all 1947 Temporada events. The races attracted top European and Brazilian drivers as well as Argentine stars competing abroad, notably Juan Manuel Fangio and José Froilán González.
The purpose-built circuit that would host the World Championship events — the Autodromo 17 de Octubre, later renamed the Autódromo Oscar y Juan Gálvez — was constructed in 1952 on swampland just outside Buenos Aires. It opened in March 1952 with the fifth edition of the Perón Cup, won by Fangio, and in 1953 hosted the inaugural South American Formula One championship round.
The 1953 race was overshadowed by tragedy when Alberto Ascari's victory for Ferrari was marred by an accident that killed nine spectators and injured many others. Crowds estimated at around 400,000 had packed the circuit, with people standing at the very edges of corners inches from the cars.
Fangio dominated the early years, winning his home Grand Prix multiple times. The 1955 race was particularly gruelling — one of the hottest on record at 40°C with track temperatures reaching 51°C. Fangio, driving for Mercedes, was the only driver to complete all 96 laps without handing his car over. One of his legs was badly burned by a chassis tube heated by exhaust gases, requiring a three-month recovery.
Stirling Moss won in 1958, a result notable as the first Formula One championship victory for a rear-engined car and the first for a privateer. New Zealander Bruce McLaren won in 1960. With Fangio's retirement, the exit of González, and political instability following the exile of Perón in 1955, the Argentine Grand Prix vanished from the calendar for over a decade.
A non-championship race was held at Buenos Aires in 1971, won by Chris Amon. The Argentine Grand Prix returned to the World Championship in 1972, with Carlos Reutemann emerging as the new national hero. Reutemann took pole position on his world championship debut — only the second driver in history to achieve that feat — though the race was won by world champion Jackie Stewart.
The circuit used progressively from 1974 was the No. 15 configuration, the longest and fastest layout, featuring two very fast banked corners feeding into a section around a lake with a 0.91 km straight and a flat-out right-hand 180-degree corner called the Curvon. Cars were flat out for 45 continuous seconds around this lake loop, making it a venue where overtaking was plentiful.
In 1977 Jody Scheckter won for the Walter Wolf team in the team's first ever Grand Prix, and in 1978 Mario Andretti drove for Lotus to begin his dominant season. The 1979 race started with a massive accident at the two fast esses, where Scheckter and John Watson took out nine cars; after a restart, Jacques Laffite's Ligier held off Reutemann. In 1980 the drivers, led by Emerson Fittipaldi, attempted to boycott the race over a disintegrating track surface, but the event went ahead. Alan Jones won for Williams, with Nelson Piquet and Keke Rosberg completing the podium; Alain Prost also scored a point in his F1 debut. In 1981 Gordon Murray's hydropneumatic suspension gave Brabham a decisive advantage; Piquet won with Reutemann second and Prost third.
The 1982 race was first postponed following the drivers' strike at the South African Grand Prix, and then cancelled entirely when Argentina entered the Falklands War with the United Kingdom. Within a sport run largely by British organisations, the conflict made the Argentine organizers' contract untenable, and the race did not return for thirteen years.
A private consortium purchased the circuit in 1991, upgraded it, and secured a calendar slot for 1994, though that race was postponed for further modernisation. The No. 6 arena configuration was adopted — a tight, twisty infield layout that was widely criticised by drivers for its lack of overtaking opportunities. An S-chicane named after Ayrton Senna was added.
Damon Hill won the 1995 and 1996 editions, the latter in his championship year. Jacques Villeneuve won in 1997 during his championship season. Financial difficulties among the organisers meant the 1998 race was the last; Michael Schumacher took victory for Ferrari, his ninth win for the team.
A race was scheduled for 1999 but cancelled before the season began. Subsequent negotiations to return the race — including a proposed street circuit at the seaside resort of Mar del Plata announced in 2012 — came to nothing.